Hitler: the last ten days

The rise and fall of the Third Reich is shown on a map behind the opening titles. Hitler has a tantrum, gives a few orders, exults in false news, has Fegelein shot, learns of Goering’s treachery and Himmler’s.

It’s all documented, right up to the end.

What all this is, anyway, amounts to nothing more than a lengthy buildup to one of the greatest punchlines in all the cinema. That’s all there is to the film, despite the attention paid in every scene, the crosscutting to actual footage of battles and horrors illuminating the inanity of the bunker, filled with the merry waltz of The Bat.

Hitler forbade smoking in his presence, the very first thing they all do upon his suicide is light up.